Broken Foundation
By Tom Gilbreath
Political divisions over the US-Israel attack on Iran surfaced shortly after the attack became publicly known. It does not seem to matter that keeping Iran from joining the nuclear club has been the policy of every presidential administration of both parties since Bill Clinton in the 1990s. George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and Donald Trump all left open the idea of using force to keep the terrorist nation of Iran out of the nuclear club.
In the late 1940s, Senator Arthur Vandenberg famously said, “Politics stops at the water's edge.” The concept was meant to keep domestic disagreements from undermining national interests abroad. It was never completely true, but for a long time in American politics, members of Congress made a real effort to show unity on foreign issues — especially when the lives of our troops might depend on such unity.
Today, the “water’s edge” idea seems quaint and naïve. Soon after Operation Epic Fury began, critics hit hard. After all, hostilities might only last a few days or weeks, and the public’s attention might start to wane even before then. Modern self-promotion says to get in front of a camera as quickly as possible while the media and public are still interested. In such an environment, thoughtful responses seem as quaint as Senator Vandenberg’s saying.
The deep, wide divisions we now face put the United States at risk. In 1858, Abraham Lincoln gave another highly divided generation of Americans a profound warning using the words of Jesus. “A house divided against itself cannot stand” (based on Mark 3:25). As of this writing, the US and Israeli militaries seem stunningly successful. But the action has again shined a light on the large and growing fracture in our nation’s foundation.
While US forces attacked the world’s number one state sponsor of terror, Homeland Security remained unfunded. If you don’t think terrorism is a concern in this situation, consider this. In just the 2023 fiscal year, the Border Patrol had 2 ½ million migrant encounters — more than five times as many as in 2020. There were 1.7 million known “gotaways.” But we only know about the “gotaways” that were detected. We don’t know how many entered the country undetected. The Border Patrol caught 169 people on the terror watch list that year. We don’t know how many terrorists entered without being caught. And those are the numbers from just one year.
It’s better now, but the damage may have already been done. It seems certain that terrorists entered our country during those times of freewheeling borders. But a radical extremist wouldn’t have to enter the country illegally. Some of the 9/11 terrorists overstayed their visas, but all of them entered the country legally. And the most dangerous terrorists, computer hackers, don’t even need to enter a country to devastate it.
For the most part, Homeland Security is still operational, but major parts of it are presently without funding. Workers are going without pay… just when we need them most. The world’s richest nation lacks the will to fund its domestic security operation in a time of battle against the world’s leading sponsor of terror. This is an example of the harm caused by a “house divided.”
Americans, pray for your country.
